The “Great Recession” wreaked havoc on the revenues of state governments. In this article, we use various indicators to measure how the revenues of different state governments have—or have not—recovered in the aftermath of the Great Recession. Importantly, we also attempt to explain why these different patterns of revenue recovery have emerged. Overall, we find that some, but far from all, state governments have recovered the revenue they lost during the Great Recession. We also find that there is no single causal explanation for recovery that applies to all state governments.
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